Cuddly Toy Outside a Police Station Leads to Emergency Call

What would you do if you saw a black panther hanging out on the lawn? Marc Peacock-Smith decided to contact his local paper after seeing a large black cat laying on the grass outside Thorpe Wood police station in Longthorpe, Cambridgeshire, according to the Daily Mail U.K. Although Peacock-Smith did the right thing, it turned out that the wild animal was actually just a stuffed animal.

MARK PEACOCK-SMITH / CATERS NEWS

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Peacock-Smith was on his way to drop his son off at day care when he saw the "wild" animal hanging out on the grass.

"I stopped my car for a few seconds so I could take a picture on my mobile phone. I didn't get out of my car and I must have been about 10 meters or so away from it. It just sat there. I'm sure other people saw it too," he told The Daily Mail.

Cambridgeshire Police said officers had received a call on Monday afternoon about an alleged puma that had been walking around Thorpe Road, Longthorpe. However, they also knew that a large stuffed animal resembling a real-life black panther had been in the same area earlier that day.

In 2011, a large black cat had been seen throughout Peterborough and was later named the mythical 'Beast of Bretton.' This week's big cat sighting sparked speculation that the legendary wild animal was back in action.

Daniel Bamping, founder of the British Big Cats Society, said that there are hundreds - "if not thousands" - of big cat sightings reported in Britain every year. "Some people are mistaken. Some are clearly not big cats but a large majority either are or go unexplained."

The photo that Peacock-Smith snapped of the supposed black panther was later analyzed by Bamping. "This looks to me like a large cuddly toy," he said.